


Queens For a Day

by LoveChilde



Category: American Girls: Rebecca - Various Authors
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 2, Community: purimgifts, Dress Up, Gen, Holidays, Purim
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-03
Updated: 2015-03-03
Packaged: 2018-03-16 05:25:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3476090
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoveChilde/pseuds/LoveChilde
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rebecca wants to be a queen for Purim, but she and her cousin Ana can't both be queens- or can they?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Queens For a Day

**Author's Note:**

  * For [hhertzof](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hhertzof/gifts).



Purim was Rebecca’s favorite holiday. She loved dressing up, she loved candy, she loved the joy and laughter of the holiday. Purim wasn’t a solemn holiday like Passover or even Hannukah- Purim was _fun_. She was too young to fast with her parents and older siblings, anyway, so the holiday was all fun. There was only one tiny snag.

“I get to be Queen, this year!”

“Oh really?” Sadie looked down at Rebecca, as usual, and exchanged a smile with Sophie, “Queen of what, exactly?”

“Why, Queen Esther of course! Last year Mama said I could be queen this year.” Rebecca looked right back. This was her one chance in the year to really, truly shine, and she wanted to be queen, for the small parade their community planned to have.

“With what costume, exactly? You know you and Ana will get something we wore a few years ago, and we were never queens.” 

“Of course you weren’t, there can’t be _two_ queens.” Rebecca snorted, but Sadie’s words had her worried. It was true that her costumes, like most of her clothes, were hand-me-downs from her sisters. It was also true that, being twins, neither one of them had even been Queen Esther, because they couldn’t be queens together, and Mama had never allowed Sadie to be queen while Sophie was something else (Sophie herself had never been that interested in being queen). “And your old costumes are _boring_.”

“Well, there isn’t any money for new costumes. Every-day clothes are much more important,” Sadie replied haughtily. “So there.”

“I’ll be queen for Purim. You just wait.” Rebecca only just managed not to stomp her foot. She walked off in a huff, and went to look for Ana. It was time for a consultation. 

***

“We have our own clothes,” Ana surveyed Rebecca’s bed, now covered in skirts and sweaters, “but none of them are very queen-like. Besides, if you’re queen, what will I be?”

That was a good question. Rebecca wanted to be queen, but she didn’t want to leave Ana out of things. She frowned, deep in thought, until a snatch of music from the street had her snapping her fingers, “We can both be queens!”

“How?”

“We don’t have to be Queen Esther,” Rebecca’s mind was rushing, quickly going through their clothing options. “Bubbie has a record of an opera, and one of the characters in it is the Queen of the Night,” she explained.

“So?”

“So if there’s a Queen of Night, there can be a Queen of Day! And then we can both be queens.” Rebecca’s excitement was growing. “One of us can wear all black, and the other all white-”

“I can borrow Bubbie’s black shawl! I’m sure she’ll let me.” Ana nodded, as excited as Rebecca now she understood. 

“And I have a yellow dress- I’ll need a sweater over it, and- Oh! I forgot!” Rebecca dove for the corner of the closet, where she kept her treasures, “Look what I got from cousin Max! He saved this for me from a costume fitting.” She pulled out a length of silver-spangled sheer fabric, glittering and beautiful. Ana ‘ohh’ed appreciatively. 

“We can share it? If we drape it over our skirts-”

“And make crowns out of cardboard and paint!” 

So that was settled. The next few days were a rush and muddle of scraping together the bits and pieces they needed- Bubbie’s black shawl, Sophie’s yellow sweater, spare bits of cardboard, tinfoil, glue and paint. Rebecca and Ana worked diligently after school: Rebecca cut out stars and moons from tinfoil and carefully pinned them to Bubbie’s shawl and to her black skirt, while Ana cut out cardboard rays and clouds from cardboard and pinned them to Rebecca’s yellow sundress. They made the crowns from tinfoil and painted cardboard, and though it wasn’t quite as glamorous as Rebecca would have wanted, the crowns looked fancy and made it clear that the two girls were queens and nothing else. 

Cousin Max gave her the perfect finishing touch, when he visited the family the Friday before Purim. 

“I hear you’re going to be queen this year, Beckie.” He ruffled her hair and she giggled.

“Yup. I’ll be Queen of Night, and Ana will be Queen of Day.” They were alone in the living room, so Rebecca felt safe talking about it; she was keeping her costume a secret from everybody else, because Sadie was sure to find some way to spoil it if she found out. Max smiled at her, eyes twinkling.

“I thought you might like a scepter for the queens,” he produced two sticks from his bag, painted gold and silver. “Put some ribbons on them and you’re set.”

“Thank you!” Rebecca threw her arms around him, “That’s perfect! Thank you, Max! Oh, I wish every day was Purim and I could dress up in fancy clothes!” When she was older, when she became an actress, as she dreamed, she’d have the loveliest, fanciest costumes all the time. 

On the morning of Purim, Rebecca and Ana prepared carefully, and made their royal entrance into the kitchen, where Mama Rubin, Sadie and Sophie were busy baking Hamentaschen. She looked at them, taking in the dresses, stars and suns, crowns and scepters, and smiled in delight.

“So, you’re both queens after all. Well done, Rebecca!”

Even Sadie had to admit they looked lovely. She poked Sophie with her elbow, as her hands were full of flour, “Why didn’t we ever think about this?”

Rebecca beamed. Purim really was the _best_ holiday.

**Author's Note:**

> Eee, writing American Girls fic. Never thought I would, so thank you for prompting this! I...haven't actually read any of the Rebecca stories, but I've read most of the rest of the historical Girls, so hopefully I got the tone right. Happy Purim!
> 
> Art is the Rebecca paper doll (finally a use for my collection!) with her Purim costume which I drew for her.


End file.
